Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Breeds of Kashmir and Blood Supply vs. Demand

Hi People! My monitor is not working so unfortunately i couldnt find the time to come online and blog! But to really fill in this void, here is a superb article written by one of my cousins on facebook!!

500 years ago a breed of kashmiris was born who believed in sunni kashmir. With the help of Mughals they ousted the last Kashmiri king Yusuf Shah Chak and Kashmir became a part of the Indian subcontinent. After that, Kashmir continued to suffer under the autocratic rule of the Mughals, Afghans, Skihs and Dogras. The rulers were brutal and would consider Kashmiris their personal property and even impose 70% taxes.

In the late 1940’s kashmiris saw a ray of hope. Little did they know it was just a beginning to their endless suffering. Sufferings that would defy all the laws of human rights and freedom. This decade also gave birth to a new breed of traitors who sold and re-sold Kashmir for their own personal gains (this breed still exists by the names of Abdullas, Muftis and Tulips). Those land merchants, for their own personal gain, changed the nation of Kashmir for ever. They used every gimmick to gain popularity but were unable to kill the common kashmiri sentiment of Azadi. They tried to bribe kashmiris by making bridges, schools, and roads but to their disappointment Kashmiris were not for sale. All they wanted was freedom.

History repeated itself in ’04 when a chef who worked for the Nehru family became the chief minister of J&K. The chief ( aka Nab’e Tulip) who specialized in making rogan josh thought he would flood the state with money and thus kill the sentiments of Azadi. In an effort to do so he made the tulip garden an icon of peace in Kashmir. He also played an instrumental role in opening the Sufism department in Kashmir University whose main objective was to dig centuries deep and find a connection between Kashmir and Hinduvita. It seemed that he was getting close to success and people started going to concerts and visiting tulip gardens. The chef who had given up his white pheran (pooch’e) and started wearing karakuli though that money and good roads will buy us while ignoring the atrocities his Rs. 1,500/ month men were doing on the people. To further ‘indianize’ Kashmir, he continued the trend of getting all the higher government officers from India. Little did he know that a volcano was about to erupt that would destroy his political career for ever and maybe force him to wear the white pheran again.

Then beginning of this century saw the sentiments of azadi dying and yet again a new breed of kashmiris was born. This time they were educated and talked in terms of economy. These people were all for India and the reason was the economic growth in India. Little do they know about GPD but kept on talking about it. For them the rising value of the rupee was the growth of a country. For them the huge outsourcing presence in India was an icon of development. Little did these fools understand that only around 11 developed cities out of 351 cities does not mean development. Neither could they understand that more than 30% of its population is below poverty line. But they still kept talking about GDP.

Talking about outsourcing, they probably don’t even know that all the major international outsourcing players in India are renting for their office space because they have no long term plans and that is the reason the real estate industry is booming. Companies like HP, IBM and Microsoft have starting moving to the Middle east and Central Asia because they can find the same skill sets at cheaper price and can find innovation which unfortunately is not in the Indian culture. The company I work for just laid off 1,500 workers in India and opened up a site in Kazakistan. Once they are gone those developing cities will be like Detroit, empty but a lot of real estate available. Lets take the example of HP. HP in South America generates twice as much as double the workers in India do. The reason is because South Americans took the innovative challenge to do R&D and are geographically close to the North Americas, while on the other side most of the outsourced business in India is done following a script. However, the last couple of months have given a big slap on the faces of these GDP lovers. Seems they have started realizing that money can’t buy Kashmir. They have now stated talking about self sufficiency and industrialization in Kashmir, something that I welcome. It took the death of many innocent people for them to realize Kashmir can’t be bought for money.

Coming back to politics, it seems that kashmiri blood is getting cheaper day-by-day. Earlier they used to kill 2-3 Kashmir when we protested. Now, it’s in two digit figure. During the Pathribal encounter in March 2000, five innocent protesters were killed who were demanding a probe into the encounter. Leave alone the people who were actually killed in the encounter. So what has made the Kashmiri blood so cheap? Is it because it is available in abundance and the supply is greater than the demand?

Blood can never be cheap. It’s the boldness of the Indian government to kill with the support of the local traitors and the silence of the world community. When will this end? Are the recent protests a final revolution of Kashmir which will break the chains of occupation or is it just another revolution like the 1860s, 1931 and 1990. This could be beginning of the end. The end of mass genocide, the end of human rights violations, and the beginning of the much awaited freedom. In an era of open borders, free trade and world unity, Kashmir is being forced to be confined and depended on a 1.5 mile tunnel. A peaceful march towards opening the border and establishing relations with other countries has costed 21 young Kashmiri lives. This all happened while my fella Kashmiris were busy shopping for Jacuzzis and while the world was enjoying the Olympics.